This is my first contribution to this board, and although I'm solliciting advice this time, I hope to be able to share some knowledge in return in the next few months. I'd be grateful for any feedback you guys (and girls) might have for my little question.

I'm looking into a job in a port city called Gunsan. The school is called Hanmi FLI (I'm guessing no one's heard of it), but I'd really like to know what people think of living/working in Gunsan. i.e. just to give y'all an idea of where I'm coming from, i'm a montrealer so i'm used to good dance clubbing, and cozy pubs, nice parks and friendly frenchmen (and frenchwomen -- although i'm guessing there are fewer of these in Korea...)

All this to say that I welcome anyone's feedback, both positive or negative.

My husband is from Gunsan. It is a little country town that has an airbase which just makes parts of it seedy. The rest is dull and a little dirty. We couldn't even find a few meters of green to have our wedding. Some one from Montreal would be in shock. If you want clubbing go to Seoul. If you want parks, don't pick a port town.

BORING, BORING, BORING!!! K/Gunsan is THE most boring city I've ever lived in (Korea or elsewhere!). I taught there for 6 months and they seemed interminable. I did a class activity with my students and had them come up with the most exciting or interesting things to do in Gunsan. The overwhelming response? GO TO E-MART!!! And this from the natives!

Gunsan has more churches per person than anywhere else in Korea. Why? Nothin' else to do!

Joined: 13 May 2003Location: traversing the minefields of caddishness.

Posted: Thu Jul 24, 2003 9:10 pm Post subject:

But how often do Korean people really tell you they did anything interesting on the weekend during those conversations, anyway.

I think the number of complaints about hearing "so-so" and "nothing special" speak for themselves. Until I asked students to tell me a good lie if they did nothing, I would hear either church, slept or mountain climbing (hiking) from the brave few that didn't say "so-so"

I think a lot of this has to do with the fact that these are easy answers that they hope will get the teacher off their back. ( Based on my own experiences as a student in French class )

While I agree with you in theory, this class was very high level (nearly native speaker level) and we had great discussions about everything from plastic surgery to politics in America and Korea. So, when they said that the best thing to do was go to E-Mart, I believed them!!! And when they said that they went to church on Sunday, I believed THAT, too!